“The governor-general has accepted my advice to dissolve both houses of parliament effective tomorrow…and call the election on July 2”, Turnbull said in televised a press conference after visiting Peter Cosgrove approximately an hour earlier.
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Both Mr Turnbull and Mr Shorten followed themes of jobs and growth and education and health funding respectively following the double dissolution election announcement on Sunday.
Labor will be fighting the next election on the ticket of implementing a target of 50 per cent renewables by 2030; the party also committed to future capital grant funding for the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA).
In recent years, Australia has gained a reputation for unsettling investors with a revolving door of prime ministers – Turnbull became the fourth leader in two years when he deposed predecessor Tony Abbott in an internal partycoup in September.
He said Labor would deliver “fairness twinned with economic growth”, whereas re-electing the Coalition would deliver three more years of dysfunction and dithering.
Both Mr Turnbull and Mr Shorten are expected to begin day one campaigning in Queensland, which along with New South Wales is one of two key battleground states that will determine the result in election 2016.
He promised to protect schools, hospitals, workers’ pay and conditions and to act on climate change while stressing Labor’s unity of objective and commitment to fairness.
Straight-talking Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce is also in Queensland, campaigning in the marginal seat of Petrie amid concerns the prime minister is considered by regional voters as a “bit of a toff”, the Courier Mail reports.
The opposition leader will detail the extra funding Labor plans to offer to schools under its pledge to fully fund the Gonski deal. “Do we stay the distance with our national economic plan for jobs and growth?”
This election is only the seventh time a double dissolution has been called and has been criticised as opportunistic by the government looking to boost its numbers in the upper house. “We are reforming our tax system to make it more sustainable and fit for objective in the 21st century”, Turnbull said.
Shorten said his party represents a “fairer Australia” and put equality at the heart of the battle.
Mr Turnbull told reporters at Parliament House in Canberra the election would be a “clear choice” for voters.
But Senator Wong said because the Turnbull government is in its first term, they’ll prove very tough to beat. “Trust Labor to protect Medicare and bulk billing”, he said.
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Turnbull said he called the dissolution because the Senate has twice refused to pass legislation relating to the accountability of unions and employer organisations, and has twice refused to pass legislation to re-establish the Australian Building and Construction Commission.
